Two teenagers detained in Russia, accused of attempted arson at local recruitment office 

Two teenagers, both 16, were detained by the police and FSB in Cherepovets, Russia, while attempting to set a local military commissariat (conscription office) on fire with molotovs, says Vadim Germanov, the town’s mayor.

The teenagers, he says, were identified via CCTV footage. The arsonists failed to start a fire: they threw their molotovs at a wrong window and did not manage to smash the glass.

“The boys did not know that smashing an insulated glass with a glass bottle is only possible in movies. The flame liquid ignited outside the building, and the fire died out before the firefighters arrived. Moreover, the arsonists threw their molotovs at the building of the state cadastre office instead of the intended draft board,” Germanov wrote on his Telegram.

Numerous videos of people setting enlistment offices on fire have appeared on social video since the Russian invasion into Ukraine started on 24 February.

Vitaly Koltsov, a 45-year-old Moscow resident, was sent into a pre-trial detention centre in Russia’s capital, accused of attempted murder of a National Guard soldier by setting a police bus on fire on 4 May.